


World Between Worlds: A Different Path

by Torytigress92



Series: Star Wars: A New Dawn [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order (Video Game), The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence: Episode 8 Chapter 16: The Rescue, Fix-It of Sorts, Found Family, Future Fic, Gen, Mandalorian Politics, New Jedi Order, New Republic era, Post Original Trilogy, The Darksaber, Time Skips, beware potential spoilers, the mandalorian - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:22:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28201542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Torytigress92/pseuds/Torytigress92
Summary: A different ending to Chapter 16: The Rescue.Din Djarin rescues Grogu from Moff Gideon only to be cornered by the Dark Troopers. But a trio of unexpected rescuers turn up, and with them, a different path for Grogu and Din to take.
Relationships: Cal Kestis x Jayna Shan, Cal Kestis x Original Female Character, Din Djarin & Grogu | Baby Yoda
Series: Star Wars: A New Dawn [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1554721
Comments: 4
Kudos: 49





	World Between Worlds: A Different Path

**Author's Note:**

> I um'ed and aah'ed about posting this but I just couldn't resist after watching the season finale of the Mandalorian. Potential spoilers for the New Dawn series, but more hints than anything else.
> 
> I might do more like these as inspiration takes me, but we'll see. The main storyline is my first priority.

Din Djarin had been in more fights than he could count, some minor, some for his very life. He was long used to the strange, contradictory rush of emotions that accompanied the release of adrenaline through his body.

So, while his body wanted to roil and tremble with the aftermath of his duel with Moff Gideon, and the growing weight of dread as he watched the Dark Troopers converge on the cruiser’s bridge, he didn’t give in to the impulse. After stowing the kid somewhere safe, he’d taken a defensive position, letting the stillness of anticipation wash over him, calming his mind with a single purpose as he waited for combat.

All around him, his comrades prepared themselves. Cara checked the power pack on her assault carbine; Bo-Katan and Koska Reeves slipped on their helmets before pulling their blasters from their holsters, behind him Fennec Shand levelled her sniper rifle at the doors.

Din glanced down one last time, gazing at the reason for all of this. The Kid, Grogu, staring up at Din with those inhumanly large, dark eyes, cooing almost as if he was trying to reassure him. This was all for him…every move Din had made, every step he’d taken since rescuing the Kid from that Imperial compound on Nevarro…was for him. He’d get him out of this, and nothing Moff Gideon said, nothing his Dark Troopers did, would stop Din from keeping that vow.

 _‘This is the Way,’_ Din murmured silently to himself, tearing his eyes from Grogu as he levelled his blaster at the blast doors. There came a rhythmic pounding, the sound of durasteel fists being driven, over and over, into metal designed to withstand blaster shots and grenades, but it couldn’t hold forever.

The Dark Troopers would have a surprise waiting for them when they did break through.

The clarity and resolution of Din’s promise kept him steady and cold as they waited for the Dark Troopers to break through, even through Moff Gideon’s posturing and dire predictions of their looming deaths at the hands of those…abominations.

Despite his best efforts, a part of Din, the part of him that had watched his parents close the doors of a cellar over him to protect him from a Separatist bombing run, only for them to open to reveal the nightmarish, blank stare of a B2 battle droid, felt nothing but revulsion and terror as he waited for the blast doors to buckle. These Dark Troopers were so much worse than any Separatist droid…for all the Empire’s vaunted rhetoric about human and organic superiority, they were no better than the Separatists, Din thought with disgust. He didn’t know if it was simple hypocrisy or if the defeat of the Empire had rendered the remnants scattered throughout the Outer Rim so desperate that they had to resort to droids to build up their ever-depleted ranks.

Din spared Moff Gideon a brief glance as the bound warlord made one last attempt to demoralise them, his face a rictus of cunning and vicious anticipation. “Everyone in this room will be dead…but me and the Child.”

The blast doors began to visibly buckle, bulging outwards towards them with every hit from the Dark Trooper’s armoured fists as Din recentred himself, aiming his blaster towards the doors…

Then a proximity alarm began to softly, shrilly _beep_. The group turned to look out the bridge’s front viewports to see two ships racing towards the cruiser.

“A X-Wing and…is that a Stinger Mantis?” Bo-Katan breathed, lowering her blasters and rushing to the closest comm station.

“An X-Wing and a luxury yacht? Great, we’re saved,” Care replied sarcastically, hefting her blaster cannon, and readjusting her aim. Din couldn’t blame her; two ships meant a maximum of two pilots, and maybe some passengers, but what calibre of passengers would be travelling on a luxury yacht? Not exactly the edge they needed to take the Dark Troopers down. Still, might be useful in diverting some of the Dark Troopers’ attention away from them if the Troopers’ programming deemed them great enough threats.

“Incoming craft, identify yourself!” Bo-Katan said briskly, activating the comms. They watched on the security monitor as the X-Wing and the yacht landed in the TIE hangar bay, one after the other, and all the while the Dark Troopers pounded away at the blast doors.

Abruptly, Din felt his attention drawn away from both the security monitor and the blast doors as Grogu, weary and afraid from his time in Imperial captivity, suddenly came to life, cooing almost excitedly as his dark eyes stared into nothing. Din frowned behind his faceplate, but he had no time to try and understand what was happening as the pounding on the blast doors unexpectedly stopped.

Din saw Moff Gideon lever himself up, shock and unease on his proud face.

“Why did they stop?” Fennec asked. On the security monitors, they watched as one by one, all the Dark Troopers turned with eerie, inhuman precision to face away from the bridge.

Din heard the sharp inhale of breath as Bo-Katan’s hand lowered from the comm controls. He looked too, to see three cloaked figures striding from the hangar bay, their dark cloaks flaring around them.

The first group of Dark Troopers engaged them, as five blades of light ignited with a colourless flare on the monitors, as Din’s brow crinkled. Five? But wait… now he could see that two of the three carried more than one weapon, a weapon he’d recognise anywhere after encountering Ahsoka Tano. Lightsabers.

One carried a dual-ended saber, carving a path through the Dark Troopers in an elegant, restrained dance. The central figure fought with only one, while the third fought with two sabers, weaving and slipping around his fellows with an ease and familiarity that spoke of experience, as well as inhuman ability.

Could it be…?

Bo-Katan’s voice was hushed, and almost reverent, as she spoke. “Jedi?” she breathed, as she reached up and removed her helmet. Din spared her a glance as a strange look came over her features as she turned and glanced at the others. It was almost…triumphant. “I know those fighters,” was all she said, with a vicious glance at Moff Gideon. “I’d know their style anywhere.”

She didn’t say anymore, as Din wondered if one of them was Ahsoka…but no. He’d seen enough of her style on Corvus to know the fighter bearing the two sabers wasn’t her…and the height and shape was wrong. He’d guess the dual-wielding fighter was male, as was the single-ended saber wielder…the third? He could be wrong, but he’d hazard a guess that they were female. But who were they? Ahsoka had said the Jedi had fallen long ago, that there weren’t many left…

She’d clearly been wrong.

As Din lowered his blaster and fully turned to watch the security monitors, he saw the pride and anticipation on Moff Gideon’s face bleed away, turning to pure terror as his eyes fixed on the now silent blast doors.

Bo-Katan’s affirmation that their rescuers were Jedi was further confirmed, as they watched them cut down the Dark Troopers with skill and speed that no mortal warrior could match, utilising not just their skills with their lightsabers, cutting a merciless, unrelenting swath as they deflected blaster bolts, sheared through durasteel limbs, and eviscerated power cores as the bloody, sinister light faded from the Dark Trooper’s photoreceptors. Din watched as one deflected a blaster bolt from one Trooper, spinning and crouching as he thrust out a gloved hand towards another, sending it flying with invisible force off a walkway, as another paused at an intersection to send four Dark Trooper flying into the wall, not stopping in her progress as she used the advantage it granted her to cut them to pieces. The third, the one bearing a single blade, simply raised his hand and turned it to a fist, as the Dark Trooper crumpled in on itself, crushed beyond repair by ghostly force as Din felt a drop of fear pool in his gut.

There were legends told by his people…legends he’d only learned after he rescued Grogu…legends of the power and strength of the Jedi. His own people had fought them and lost, devastating their home world and their culture shattered…and now he was seeing why and how, first-hand.

And **_that_** was what Grogu had the potential to become? The power he possessed, hidden deep within his tiny little body?

Everybody was on edge, tense, and uncertain as they watched three unknown Jedi advance on the bridge. They made defeating the Dark Troopers look like child’s play, no more difficult than cutting the head off a grain stalk…but would they suffer the same fate? Din shot a glance at Bo-Katan once more, the woman’s expression was enigmatic, expectant, and still strangely triumphant, but no more helpful or forthcoming. She knew who they were, but she wasn’t telling, not yet.

But they weren’t an enemy. Din had to trust in Bo-Katan’s assessment, at least for now.

He watched once more as they advanced through a cargo hold, encountering more Troopers. The single wielder pushed a cargo crate into the legs and lower torso of one of the droids, pinning it to the wall as the dual-ended saber wielding Jedi leapt into the air, deflecting blaster bolts as she went, while the other took on two at once, cutting down his attackers with his two saber simultaneously. With a gesture of her hand, the female sent a Trooper flying towards the dual-wielding Jedi, as he cut them in half, one after the other, in a single, flowing movement of his blades…

And then Moff Gideon made his final, desperate play, grasping a blaster and shooting Bo-Katan multiple times. The beskar absorbed the shots but it knocked her to the ground, and then Din saw Gideon turn his blaster on Grogu…

Without hesitation, Din threw himself in front of the kid, taking the shots as they pounded into his chest armour, knocking the air from his lungs. Fennec and Cara turned their weapons on Gideon as Fennec demanded, “Drop it!”

Moff Gideon tried to turn the blaster on himself, but Cara got there first, bludgeoning him across the temple. He teetered for a moment, his eyes unfocussed as the blaster fell from his bound hands, then he slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Koska Reeves went to help Bo-Katan as Din made sure the kid was unharmed, picking him up as he slowly, painfully got to his feet while Fennec and Cara kept their blasters trained on Gideon’s unmoving body.

On the monitors, the three unknown Jedi were still making steady progress towards the bridge. The Dark Troopers stood no chance as they marched with slow, inexorable purpose towards the three invaders, aiming always for killshots but the Jedi were too skilled. If they didn’t deflect the blaster shots back at the Troopers, they avoided them completely, answering with a salvo of their own, using their mysterious power to send them flying into the bulkheads or each other before dispatching them without mercy, or throwing their sabers with unerring precision as the move took out the headcases of two Troopers before flying back to the dual-wielding Jedi’s outstretched hand. As Din watched on the monitors, Grogu stretched out a tiny, clawed hand to the display…

One of the Jedi had a droid on his back, Din released, clinging to the fabric of his cloak. It was one he didn’t recognise, but Bo-Katan’s sharp intake of breath was all the answer he needed. She knew who he was. He glanced at her, catching her eye as she shook her head. “Just like his father…always has to make an entrance,” she breathed, almost to herself, something almost like… ** _fondness_** in her eyes.

“Would you care to fill the rest of us in?” Cara asked sarcastically.

“No time. They’ll be here any minute,” Koska replied for her leader, as the Dark Troopers on the bridge level all turned to the turbolift as they saw the three enter on the level below. It was a fatal mistake; the Jedi would be bottlenecked, a sitting duck for the Dark Troopers’ blasterfire. Even if they managed to get their sabers out to defend, they’d probably take out each other before they managed to take out the Troopers.

Din glanced once more at Bo-Katan, but the other Mandalorian didn’t seem concerned, merely anticipatory as she met his gaze. “Just wait,” she whispered.

So, Din did, that fear and unease he’d felt turning almost to comfort in his gut. He’d seen their power…if anyone could survive that kind of situation, it would be a Jedi. Grogu seemed to agree, as the kid didn’t seem distressed by whatever he was sensing from them.

The turbolift _dinged_. The doors opened. The Dark Troopers opened fire.

Only for their blaster fire to rebound back at them, taking out the nearest Troopers as Din’s eyes widened beneath his faceplate. “What the hell…?” Fennec murmured, disbelievingly.

Din had to agree with her.

The doors of the turbolift were blocked by some kind of…energy field, nearly invisible if it weren’t for the way it rippled and glowed. He could see the third Jedi, the one who’d wielded a dual-ended saber and who he was increasingly certain was female, had her gloved hands outstretched and somehow, instinct whispered that **_she_** was doing this.

The other two didn’t hesitate, leaping from the open turbolift, clearing the other Jedi and each other as their weapons flared to life, still colourless in the black-and-white display, but he could feel the anticipation rising in Bo-Katan with every step they made towards the bridge. They cut down the Troopers, one after the other, deflecting shots from those they missed, until there were none left as a dubious calm descended in the passageway outside the bridge. Their fellow from the turbolift joined them, lowering her hands as the…whatever that was but Din guessed _shield_ , dissipated and she activated her saber once more.

When the last Dark Trooper fell in a crumpled, crushed heap to the floor, the three Jedi stopped outside the bridge blast doors, waiting as one, the one with the two sabers and a droid on his back, cocked his head, as if listening for something.

Grogu cooed, his long ears pricking up. Bo-Katan exhaled heavily.

Din met his gaze as the kid whined and mumbled unintelligibly, trying to tell him something. He picked him up, cradling him protectively as he turned to the others. “Open the doors,” he said.

Bo-Katan did as he said without hesitation. Fennec was incredulous. “Are you crazy?” she demanded.

But the deed was done.

The blast doors rolled open, letting in the smoke and plasma discharge from the battle outside as they saw first the glowing blades of the Jedi: vibrant forest-green, iridescent indigo, and starlight-gold. Their bearers followed, the hoods and skirts of their blade cloaks flaring wide through the smog of battle, then came the _hum_ was their blades deactivated and they clipped them to their belts. Their hoods shrouded their faces still, but Din could see they were all clad in the same dark-hued colours: black, blue, and grey, although the woman wore trousers beneath a surcoat. As one they threw back their hoods as Din felt Bo-Katan move into view beside him.

“You took your time, nephew,” she called as the woman huffed a laugh and one of the men looked pained.

“Hello to you too, Aunt Bo,” he replied irreverently as everybody else’s head snapped to stare at Bo-Katan, all except Koska’s Reeves, who lowered her blasters but didn’t remove her helmet. Somehow, Din guessed she wasn’t surprised at all.

“Aunt?” Din repeated incredulously. “Your nephew is a Jedi?”

Bo sighed patiently, but before she could reply, the second of the three Jedi, the one who’d borne two sabers, spoke up.

“My mother was Satine Kryze of Mandalore,” he explained, his voice cool and clear. “My father was Obi-Wan Kenobi of the Jedi Order. Bo-Katan is my maternal aunt. My name is Cal Kestis,” he continued, gesturing to himself, then to the others. “This is Jayna Shan, and Luke Skywalker.”

Cara started as Din eyed her over his shoulder, then turning to Bo-Katan. His mind reeled. A Mandalorian and a Jedi? Even though he’d identified the blasphemous leader of the New Mandalorians as his mother, Din could barely credit it, but it was clearly true if Bo-Katan acknowledged him as her nephew.

“You could’ve mentioned this earlier,” Din bit out, glaring at Bo-Katan through his visor. “Instead of sending us to Corvus only to be sent on a wild-goose chase.”

“Was it?” the third Jedi asked, with a curious smile. “We felt Grogu reach out through the Force. We came as quickly as we could.”

Din turned and looked at the three Jedi properly, for the first time since their entrance. The woman was sleight and short, shorter than anyone there, yet there was an ethereal sense to her, something not quite human that Din sensed, even if he didn’t understand it. Sable brown hair was twined in a tight braid over one shoulder, dark brown eyes watching with guarded curiosity in a pretty face. Her companions were equally commonplace, but all charged with the same ethereal, inhuman quality he sensed in her. The taller of the two, the one who’d identified himself as Bo-Katan’s nephew, possessed vibrant red hair, with a neatly trimmed beard, green eyes watching the proceedings with wry amusement. The last Jedi, the other male who’d explained they had sensed Grogu during his meditation on Tython, was sandy-haired and pale-skinned, clean-shaven, with a small, faded scar bisecting one side of his face, his eyes a deep blue. One of his hands was gloved, hiding what Din was sure was an artificial replacement. His eyes were serious and sad, fixed on a spot besides Din where he just knew Grogu was peering around his hip.

“I thought to try and get a message to Cal earlier, but I only had a comm frequency, not a location,” Bo-Katan explained, with a sidelong glance at the three Jedi. “It made more sense to send you to Ahsoka first.”

“Ahsoka said the Jedi Order fell long ago,” Din replied, almost accusingly as he recalled the Togruta warrior on Corvus. He looked back at the three Jedi. “Are you Jedi?” he demanded.

“We are,” the woman claimed, stepping forward. “The Order was betrayed and destroyed over a quarter of a century ago, but some of us survived,” she added, with a glance towards the one called Cal. “Enough to find and train others in the ways of the Force, to rebuild the Order.”

“We’ve been building the foundations for a training Temple,” Cal continued the story, with a glance at Luke. “For security reasons, we’ve been keeping its location secret so the Imperial remnants couldn’t track us down before we could defend ourselves.”

Din wanted to protest but it made sense. Moff Gideon was a prime example of how dangerous the Imperial remnants could be, even scattered and divided as they were. He could understand the Jedi’s caution. But he still had questions.

Clearly, they sensed them. “Ahsoka’s path is estranged from ours,” Luke said, sadly. “She does not believe it is possible to restore the Order. Her path is her own to walk.”

Din nodded, recalling the reason Ahsoka was on Corvus to begin with. Grogu murmured and grumbled, drawing all eyes as the woman, Jayna, smiled at the little one. “You’re strong in the Force,” she breathed, before glancing up at Din. “You’ve done well to protect him as you have.”

Cal smiled as he stepped towards the child. “I remember you,” he said, kneeling as Grogu inched closer, curious but wary after his time in Imperial custody. “I don’t if you do, but we trained together in the creche before I was apprenticed to Master Tapal. You always used to steal cookies from the Temple kitchens by levitating them into the ventilation ducts...Master Yoda used to get so…well not exactly mad but certainly irritated,” he said, with a small laugh as Grogu chirruped and his ears pricked up, giggling a cooing laugh.

“He still does that,” Din replied, thinking back to Nevarro. He looked back to the one they’d called Skywalker, the one who legend said had defeated the Emperor and Darth Vader, as he watched the scene gravely, before he held his hand out.

“Come, little one,” he said, offering his hand to Grogu. The child stepped back, looking to Din as he felt compelled to interject.

“He doesn’t want to go with you.”

“He does,” Jayna replied softly, with a knowing look at Din that made his skin crawl a little. “But he wants your permission to come with us. He has a son’s love for you, Din Djarin.”

“How’d you know my na-?” he began to ask, unnerved before Bo-Katan interrupted from behind.

“Jedi,” she stated, by way of explanation.

“He is strong with the Force,” Luke continued, gazing at Din as he spoke. “but talent with training is nothing. We will give our lives to protect him, but he won’t be safe until he masters his abilities.”

Din felt the heaviness of dread in his gut, replacing the fear and uneasiness brought on by these three strange, inhuman beings. He turned to Grogu and knew that what they were saying was true. He picked him up, feeling the kid nestle in his arms as he’d done a hundred times before, and felt like what was left of his heart might break.

“Hey, go on,” he began to tell the kid, injecting as much reassurance and enthusiasm into his voice as he could. “That’s who you belong with, they’re your kind.”

Grogu cooed and whimpered, his eyes large and dark as he looked up at Din.

“We are,” Jayna Shan said, with a soft expression in her eyes. “But he belongs with you too,” she added, looking to him. “Come with us.”

Din stared at her, eyes wide beneath the helmet.

Luke sighed. “Master,” he sighed as Jayna turned to face him with a militant expression replacing the softer one in her eyes.

“We said that when we began this, we wouldn’t make the mistakes of our ancestors,” she began passionately. “This is the right thing to do, I know it. Their paths are entwined, it’s too late to break them apart now. He **_must_** come with us.”

Din looked at them all, his head spinning like he’d taken a blow from a reek. Jayna looked back at him with a small smile, while her companions bore identical expressions of long-suffering exasperation and resignation. “How would you like a commission, Mandalorian?” she asked, with a knowing look. “We need someone with underworld contacts and a high level of martial training to act as head of security for the temple, at least until we’ve managed to finish our students’ training. There’s not much in the way of pay but you’d get food and lodging, and you’ll be able to watch Grogu grow and flourish. Maybe you’ll even have a thing or two to teach us…if nothing else, you can keep up Cal’s lessons in Mando’a.”

“I’m not **_that_** bad,” Cal muttered, albeit with a fond expression as Bo-Katan huffed a laugh.

“Your accent is still terrible, _vabr_ ,” she told him, with as much affection as Din had ever seen in her eyes and voice. They hardened after a moment, her eyes flashing as she looked to Din, before they fell to the weapon on his hip. “But Din Djarin has duties elsewhere. For better or worse…he is now the rightful ruler of Mandalore, and we have a planet to reclaim.”

Cal started, his eyes falling to the saber as he swallowed. “The Darksaber?” he said, shocked, before he looked up at Din. “Where the stars did you find that? I thought it was lost after the Purge of Mandalore?”

“Long story,” Din said, almost groaning before he turned to Bo-Katan, unhooking it from his belt as he exclaimed forcefully. “I do not want it. I will never want it. Take it!”

“I told you, the Darksaber can only be won through combat-!?” Bo-Katan began heatedly, her hand falling to her blaster when Jayna interrupted with a loud snort.

“Oh yes, because trial by combat is always a sound basis for government,” she interrupted sarcastically. The tension was further cut by the interjection of a series of boops and beeps from the droid clinging to Cal’s back, as Cal started.

“BD! Sorry buddy,” he muttered, as the droid climbed up on his shoulder. “Everyone, this is BD-1,” he gestured to the droid, a Republic BD series exploration droid from before the Clone Wars. “And he has a point,” he mused, eying Bo-Katan and Din narrowly. “You didn’t quibble over accepting it from Sabine Wren during the Civil War, even though you didn’t fight her for it, **_and_** she didn’t win it in combat from Maul either. Why the reluctance now?”

Bo-Katan stared at him, lost for words, before Din once again thrust his hand out, offering the Darksaber to her. “Take it,” he told her, firmly. Slowly, hesitantly, she reached out to take it, her eyes searching his, even though she couldn’t see through the visor.

“This will bestow the rule of our people on its bearer. How can you not want it? You would be able to restore the Tribe’s Way and position in our society,” she asked carefully.

“It is my Way, but it is not the only Way, nor should it be,” he replied quietly but with conviction. He’d learned any things during his journey with Grogu, but that was most definitely one of them. Bo-Katan grasped the hilt, before she took it from him and clipped it to her belt as she met his gaze. “ _Pu'ur. Gett'se. Jate Nijagr. Vercopa ma waev be mies o'r gar sa'a. Ibic cuyir Miai_ ,” he said fervently. “Good hunting.”

“And to you, Din Djarin and Grogu of Clan Mudhorn,” she replied softly, her eyes softening before she looked to Cal and Jayna. “How are my grand-niece and nephew doing?” she asked, stepping back as Din glanced between them.

A sly look flashed in Jayna’s eyes as Cal just grimaced. “Running us ragged,” he replied tiredly. “Trust me, this has been a walk in the park compared to running after a couple of Force Sensitive toddlers who’ve just learned how to walk and run without falling over.”

Luke couldn’t quite hold back a slight laugh. “Between Cere, Ben, and Jaro, Grogu will have plenty of playmates,” he assured Din, before caution replaced his geniality. “If you decide to come with us?”

Din caught his breath. For the first time since they’d boarded the cruiser, he stopped and let himself think. Could he do this? To go with Grogu…it meant he could stay with the kid, but his vow was fulfilled now. He had returned the child to his own kind…and that kind were his people’s ancestral enemies. But were they still enemies?

He looked at Cal, the child of a Mandalorian and a Jedi, and then at Bo-Katan and the weapon she held…a weapon created by a Mandalorian who became a Jedi, if the legends spoke true. He caught Cara’s eye, the Alderaanian woman looking suspiciously misty-eyed as she felt his gaze.

“I know what I’d do, what I’d give, to be with my family again,” she said, so quietly Din might not have heard it if it weren’t for his helmet. “He’s just as much your family. Don’t walk away from this just because it might be difficult.”

Din nodded, before he looked down at Grogu in his arms. And then the choice became no choice at all, really.

He looked up and nodded just once as BD-1 gave an excited squeal, Cal and Jayna smiled, and even Luke looked pleased despite himself. Grogu let out a happy chirrup, making everyone laugh as Cal raised his commlink to his mouth.

“Greez? We’re headed back soon but we’ve picked up an extra passenger or two,” he said into the device, as a nasally voice snorted at the other end.

“Kid, by this point, I’m used to it by now,” was the reply.

Jayna laughed softly before looking to Din. “Are you ready?” she asked.

“I am,” Din replied, with a deep breath. “ ** _We_** are,” he amended as Grogu mumbled in his arms. Turning to Cara and the others, he nodded to them. “Thank you,” was all he said, simple but sincere.

Cara, Fennec, Koska, and Bo-Katan nodded. “Good luck to you both,” Cara said softly, with a sad smile in Grogu’s direction. She kicked Moff Gideon’s unconscious body and reassured him, “I’ll deal with this.”

“Cal!” Bo-Katan called suddenly as the red-haired Jedi looked her way. “You should visit more. It’s about time I got to see this grand-niece and nephew of mine in person.”

“We will, Aunt Bo,” Cal assured her as Jayna just smirked.

“You might regret that…we could always use more babysitters,” she replied lightly as Koska Reeves laughed.

“Now **_that_** I’d like to see,” the Mandalorian muttered, eliciting a glare from Bo-Katan as the company found themselves chuckling.

“We must be going,” Luke said firmly, with a look at Grogu and Din. He looked around once more at the others, before he nodded once in farewell. “May the Force be with you.”

Din looked at Jayna and Cal, who just gestured for him to precede them. For a moment, Din hesitated then Grogu cooed in his arms, and he turned his back on the others and began to follow the Jedi called Skywalker from the bridge. For one wild, heart-pounding moment, he expected to hear the _hum_ of a lightsaber activating and the burning pain as it speared his heart…but it didn’t come. It likely never would, if Grogu was any clue. He’d know, right?

With the kid clinging to his arms, cooing softly and reassuringly, Din Djarin set out with Jedi before him and Jedi following him, on a different path than he’d ever dreamed.

But he’d do it. For the kid, he would do anything.

 _‘This is the Way,’_ he told himself, looking down at those dark eyes set into green skin between ears too large for his head. _‘For us, this is the way.’_

More at peace with that thought than he’d ever imagined, Din Djarin took a deep breath inside his helmet and left the bridge, with his allies, far behind.


End file.
